Urinary incontinence is a widespread problem in the United States and throughout the world. Urinary incontinence affects people of all ages and can severely impact a patient both physiologically and psychologically.
In approximately 30% of the women suffering from urinary incontinence, incontinence is caused by intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD), a condition in which the valves of the urethral sphincter do not properly coapt. In approximately another 30% of incontinent women, incontinence is caused by hypermobility, a condition in which the muscles around the bladder relax, causing the bladder neck and proximal urethra to rotate and descend in response to increases in intraabdominal pressure. Hypermobility may be the result of pregnancy or other conditions which weaken the muscles. In an additional group of women with urinary incontinence, the condition is caused by a combination of ISD and hypermobility.
In addition to the conditions described above, urinary incontinence has a number of other causes, including birth defects, disease, injury, aging, and urinary tract infection.
Numerous approaches for treating urinary incontinence are available. One such approach involves the use of a sling. At the present time, however, surgeons using a sling based procedure must grow or harvest autologous tissue or purchase processed cadaveric tissue, animal tissue, or synthetic material from a supplier and fashion the sling during the surgical procedure. Thus, during surgery, the surgeon must cut the sling to the desired dimensions and shape, and attach sutures to the sling. In addition to increasing surgical expense, these steps increase the time required for and complexity of the procedure, thereby increasing surgical morbidity and mortality.
In addition, the slings currently in use are susceptible to tearing at the sites where the sutures are attached to the sling. If the suture attachment sites tear, the sling becomes dislodged and incontinence may result. Additional surgery is required to replace the dislodged sling and restore continence.
Thus, there remains a need for a prefabricated sling which overcomes the above deficiencies. U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,515, issued Mar. 18, 1997 to Benderev et al., introduces pioneering minimally invasive percutaneous and transvaginal bladder neck stabilization approaches. The percutaneous approach of Benderev et al. involves stabilizing the bladder neck using a bone anchor which is percutaneously introduced from the abdominal side of the patient. The transvaginal approach of Benderev et al. involves stabilizing the bladder neck using a staple or bone anchor which is transvaginally placed into the pubic bone. The slings of the present invention may be used in several urethral or bladder neck stabilization procedures, including the minimally invasive percutaneous and transvaginal procedures described below and those described in Benderev et al.